The Burnaby NOW arts reporter, Marelle Reid, recently chatted with Rob Bracken of Brickhouse about his career and upcoming performance at this summer's Burnaby Blues and Roots Festival.
Question: You've been on the Vancouver scene for a while now, right? Answer: Brickhouse has been on the Vancouver scene, yeah, for over 20 years now,
over 20 years now, and we were the house band at The Yale for 10 (years). We do a gig on Thursday nights at The Fairview and we've been doing that for, I think, 12 or 13 years.
Q: Where did you get your start? A: Our first gig was on Bowen Island. We didn't even have a name for the band for months, and we were watching the hockey game and we got a call - hey, what's the name of the band, we've got a gig on Bowen Island? - and the guy calling us happened to be listening to the song Brickhouse by The Commodores, and he said, 'What about Brickhouse?' and I said, 'Hey guys, you OK with Brickhouse?' and they said, 'Yeah, that's fine, whatever.' So, we just kept getting more gigs, and we just forgot to change the name.
Q: What's your role in the band?
A: I'm the singer and the driver of the Winnebago. I also play harmonica.
Q: How many are in the band?
A: There's six guys in the band: we have a sax player, a keyboard player, a guitar player, bass player, drummer. We've got all the required seats filled in the orchestra.
Q: How would you describe your band's genre?
A: That's a tough one, not that, of course, we're the most unique band in the world or anything. I would say it's blues-funk. That's been used a number of times to describe our music. It's a little poppy, we throw a little bit of country flavour in there, too. ... Kind of blues, kind of funky, kind of soulful.
Q: What was your first album called?
A: It was called Live from the Belly of the Bullfrog. It was recorded at the Bullfrog Studios where Prussin Music on Broadway is now, just beside The Jazz Cellar. Speaking of which, we just played The Jazz Cellar two weeks ago, or a week ago, and it was awesome. It's really cool. It seats about 80 people and it's downstairs, and you've got to turn your cellphones off and you're not allowed to talk during the performance, and it's really intimate and it's all about the music. That's what we're going for these days.
Q: You've been called the hottest party band in town. Can you tell me about that?
A: Oh, yeah, ixnay that. Whoever wrote that should be shot. I hate that, it's so stupid. Somebody was drunk and had to submit something to somebody, and I don't know if it was a bar owner or our sax player, and I don't know. We were the house band at The Yale and we were doing Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays late nights, from 12:30 to 3:30 a.m., so we were pushed and groomed and stroked to be a party band, to be competition for The Roxy or something like that, but on more of a decrepit level.
Anyway, bluegh. However, having said that I hate "Vancouver's hottest party band," or whatever it was. Our shows, the focus is really on having a good time, listening to the music - you can sit back and listen to the music - or jump up and freak out.
Our crowd is very eclectic. It's kids, old folks, people in between, nut bars, geniuses; I mean, that's just the guys in the band, but I mean, the audience, too. It's really quite diverse. You're liable to see just about anybody at any of our shows.
Q: What can your fans expect at the Blues and Roots Festival this year?
A: I love playing the concerts and stages and stuff like that - festivals, and we always bring our A game, and it will be extremely intense and an absolute laugh riot.
Q: How many songs will you play in your set?
A: It depends on how inspired the guys are, and you can take that for what it is. Our songs average about five or six minutes, so I guess maybe seven or eight songs.
Q: Do you have a set list or will you wing it?
A: We play to the crowd. For shows that are more concert-oriented, we usually put a set list together, and the first two or three songs follow that and then it goes out the window, usually.
We play to the crowd and how energetic they are or how receptive they are, if they seem to go crazy for one type of genre or one type of music.
Yeah, we just play it by ear, usually. It's way more fun, and if you get inspired you'll just kick into the next one and, of course, everyone will recognize it and bang, you're into it again.
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